Study our history, and the history of your particular community, whatever that may be. You will find a lot to be proud of, and you will see what good and true Lebanese values were before around the 60's when things started to get out of hand for various reasons. Most likely, your ancestors were like all of ours: hospitable, generous, hard-working people who took pride in their history and their villages, who took care of their families and their neighbors and who lived peaceful, quiet lives in touch with nature.

You have a lot to be proud of, and there are a lot of very good values that our people have. Modernity hit us hard, and we left behind what is good in our tradition and kept only the worst things - tribalism, feudalism and narrow-mindedness. What used to be a healthy sense of dignity we turned into ego and selfishness. This is not who we are though, I can assure you of this. Don't let what you see today and the general dark mood surrounding Lebanon blind you to timeless, beautiful things about this little Mediterranean jewel. We don't need to turn Eastwards or Westwards to find good values. All we need is to do is look back on who we once were to find ourselves again. Whether you are in or outside the country, there is much about Lebanon that you can keep and learn from, you just have to know where to look.